Today we would like to discuss different viewpoints that may arise when bookmakers calculate the bet, and how this difference in rules may affect arbers.
Difference in football rules
Of course, every bettor wants to get the best odds for sports events and it’s possible when your odds monitoring software is based on a betting odds api from OddsMarket. But another important thing is to understand, that under these best odds can be hidden an unpleasant surprise in a form of unique rules of bet calculation set by the bookie.
Eg. very often we can face with different rules on football that occur with yellow/red card markets. You’d think there’s no trouble to count cautions and calculate the stake. But there is always an exception.
The thing is that some bookies take into account those cautions that were given during the regular time, while others consider overtime as well, and sometimes even cards given after the whistle.
Moreover, some bookies consider even cards given to main/replacement players and even coaches. However, one bookmaker may treat two cautions as two yellow cards, and another bookie as one read card.
There are certain inconsistencies in bookmakers’ rules in tournaments where overtime or penalties are allowed. Thus, many bookmakers consider match results based only on regular time. But, some bookies also include overtime.
Differences in hockey rules
There are certainly not less inconsistencies in hockey rules. For example, the same thing we have in football: some bookmakers may include only regular time, while others include overtime and even penalty shots.
It’s important to mind some crucial 1.5, 3.5, 5.5, 7.5 totals that may be included in regular time as well as in overtime, since having odds total, the event can not have overtime as the draw is impossible.
The same thing we have with handicaps (±1.5, ±3.5) etc. They are also for regular time and for OT. To back up these boring theory, I’ll support them with an example:
Famous 10bet bookmaker calculates live bets on hockey including OT and penalty shots which can be found in their rules. At the same time, WilliamHill accepts live bets at regular time (3 times, 20 min each).
So this difference may have a high cost, given the circumstances. Let’s imagine you’ve bet on Team2 win at WilliamHill. Of course, the winner will be defined by overtime results, and obviously the bet on Team2 Win will pass. This situation will not make you comfortable and it makes sense, as one of your bets will be canceled and the second one will lose.
Moreover, some bookies set different rules on particular championships (conc. hockey and basketball as well). For example, bookmaker can accept bets on preseason NHL matches including only regular time, and during the season the same bookmaker includes OT and penalty shots.
Differences in tennis rules
Tennis is one of the most popular sports where different rules may occur. Mainly it concerns matches that were interrupted.
Accordingly, many bookies cancel the bets on interrupted matches. But some refer to the result that was defined before the match has been interrupted (like Pinnacle). And only this bookmaker requires the match to be ended at least with one set, otherwise, the bet would be canceled.
It is worth noting that even Pinnacle calculates bets only on the winner, while bets on other outcomes (totals, handicaps, etc) will be canceled.
However, if you already perfectly know the rules of “your” bookmakers and have some knowledge in programming – you can create a bot for monitoring odds from these particular bookies, and don’t worry about getting in some bookmaker’s “trap”. It can be easily done with the help live odds feed by OddsMarket which already includes the odds data from 310 bookmakers and 47 kinds of sports.
A few more words about different rules
Apart from different rules in sports, I’ll remind you about the difference in treatment towards bets on postponed matches. Most bookies cancel the bet in this case, but:
Let’s imagine B1 cancels the bet on the match that was postponed for a period longer than 30 hours. At the same time, B2 still accept bets if the match is postponed for a period no longer than 3 days (72 hours). Now let’s see how this may affect bettors and especially those who are operating with arbitrage betting:
For instance, we have Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern Munich where B1 accepts bets on TU 2.5 @2.04, and B2 – TO 2.5 @2.07. We place our bets. After some time, we are told that the match is postponed from 3 p.m. Tuesday to 3 p.m. Thursday. Then let’s say that this match took place on Thursday and ended with the score 1:1. Therefore:
- Our bet on B1 was canceled as the match was postponed for more than 30 hours.
- Our bet on B2 has not passed as the teams couldn’t score TO 2.5.
Conclusion
As you see, differences in bookmakers’ rules may have a considerable impact on bettor’s work and can even lead to significant loss. That’s why we advise to learn bookmaker rules thoroughly before placing bets to avoid force majeure.
